To Nimil

Mil struggled to control his wagon's team of horses as they bolted from the strange explosion turned implosion of the royal castle. In the bed of the wagon Rachel, Jane, Pena, and the pale child bounced around. During one rough bounce, Pena rolled over coming face to face with a pale Dean the royal ranger laying half covered with a tarp. "What is he doing here?!" She cried out before bouncing around as one of the wagon's wheels struck something laying in the road.

"Hold on back there! I've almost got them calmed down." A collapsed building's burning wreckage blocked the street ahead forcing the wagon to take a sharp turn riding up on two wheels before crashing down. All the passengers were forced to grab on to something to keep from being thrown out knowing it was unlikely for the wagon to stop. From the back, they heard cries of occasional combat and even people demanding they stop yet the wagon never slowed. By the time it did start slowing down the horses were covered in frothing sweat and the capital city was a burning outline behind them.

Sitting up Pena glared at the still unmoving Royal Ranger wondering if he was dead when she noticed a chunk of his right shoulder was missing. In fact, as she looked closer not only was his right shoulder missing, so was his right arm. The wound was odd, too perfectly smooth and the flesh of it looked strange as well. "Is he dead?" Rachel asked, her face almost as pale as that of the child she still clung to.

"No, he is still breathing barely," Pena responded having checked.

"Old man, how do you know my D." Jane sat up to lean forward towards the old man driving the wagon.

Mil glanced back at the small girl doing a double take at her scarred up appearance. "D saved my life once. What was he doing at the royal castle! I was just taking the ranger there. I never expected to run into him." Mil managed to shrug out of his old coat and passed it to the girl with a grunt of "for D."

"I think there is a military camp not too far away. We can head there." Mil let the horses trot at a slow pace recovering from their mad dash.

"No, we need to head north. We have to get out of Gelian. We should be safe if we head up to Nimil then into the swamp wastes." Jane leaned over to look directly at Mil, her eyes shimmering with a faint golden light.

"Um girl, do you have any idea what you are saying? There is a reason hardly anyone lives in Nimil; the swamp wastes are one of the worst wastes. Nimil is barely an outpost even by fringe standards! Look, let's get to the military… Hey, let me go!" Jane grabbed onto his arm in protest trying to pull him to steer north.

"Larian said we had to go north to Nimil or we would all die!" Jane sounded almost panicked as she struggled to get him to turn north.

"Calm down girl! Larian said that? Truly?" Mil looked at Jane and only then noticed the faint shimmering of gold light. "Alright Alright. North we go." He glanced back at D covered in his jacket. "Paying my debt better not get me killed!" Gripping his wand in one hand and the reins in the other he started turning them north.

**********

For the three days the group traveled north neither D nor Dean stirred at all. Jane tended to D managing to get him to drink water while Rachel tended to Dean. After the first day, the pale child's eyes opened but she did little more than look around wide eyed as if everything was new to her. When the others tried to talk to her she would only give them blank stares and Rachel commented on how hard it was to even get her to eat. Still, Mil had enough supplies in the wagon for even the larger group to last a while. He'd taken up work with the army during the battle against the Destroyer transporting goods to the forward camp.

To the girls, he explained how he'd been on a trip back to the camp to deliver a new load of supplies when a group of soldiers stopped him. Tossing the Royal Ranger into the back of his wagon he'd been ordered to take him straight to the royal castle. Not willing to argue and with the ground trembling from the Destroyer's footsteps he'd been happy to turn back. Mil was shocked to see the missing arm and the unnatural wound on the ranger as he'd not noticed it prior during their escape.

Despite the turmoil in the capital once they turned north the roads were calm and even the few settlements they passed through seemed peaceful. Still, by the time they made it to the outskirts of Nimil the old driver Mil was nearly exhausted having only caught a few bits of sleep here and there. Even those were far from restful as he spent most of the time clutching his wand and waking at almost any sound. Thus late in the third afternoon while on the outskirts of Nimil when D finally started stirring the old man was more than a little relieved.

Jane was doing her best to trickle water into his mouth while trying not to blush since Pena continued to tease her about giving it to him in a kiss. Suddenly D sat straight up, his eyes open and looking around. Taking in the old jacket used as a blanket over his naked form he looked right past the startled Jane barely even noticing any of the others before asking. "Where is my backpack? All my money was in there!"

While his waking up suddenly was shocking, his first question being about his missing belongings and lost money wasn't that out of character for him. What shocked the gathered group most was his voice was a smooth baritone instead of his familiar raspy tone. Even D halted in a bit of shock to mutter a slew of random words testing his healed voice before turning back to the important part. "Where is my stuff?"

Rachel's eye twitched slightly. "Stuff? Stuff? We barely made it out alive from that castle! When you became that… big monster your clothes were torn apart and the pack you were carrying dropped too. We barely managed to drag you out, but I guess we could have left you behind and brought your bag instead!" Sitting beside Rachel, the pale white child wearing Larian's jacket looked up at her with a wide eyed but blank stare.

Jane humphed. "She didn't carry you at all. I did!" She paused a moment before adding in a slightly lower tone. "Well, that one did help." She tilted her chin slightly towards Pena.

For her part Pena shifted across the wagon, her eyes hungry. "Finally you are awake. Good, I really need some food! You owe me D it is the very least you can do!"

D scowled at the group before noticing Mil. "You are the wagon driver from when we came to the capital?" For the moment D decided to put his missing items and money aside.

Mil, who was already looking for a good spot to pull off the road to rest, glanced back at the boy. "D! I'm glad to see you awake. You've got more energy than I expected for one that's been out for three days!"

D's frown deepened as he heard how long he'd been out. But he couldn't argue, not only was his voice no longer a raspy mess he felt… great. Pena, who was scowling and starting to go off on a rant, was cut short when he reached out and slid his hand around behind her neck. He then yanked her face to the side of his neck ignoring the shocked expressions of both Jane and Rachel as well as the sensation of needle-like fangs sinking in.

Ignoring the girl draining his blood he asked Mil. "Where are we? Where is Larian? Can we go get my things?"

Mil glanced back as they pulled off the main road his eyes settling on the girl that seemed to be kissing his neck, to the enraged look on the scarred girl, then back to D. "We are outside Nimil, your little um friend there said Larian told us to head here. As for where Master Larian is I've not a clue, these girls aren't very good at sharing information! As for your stuff, you'd have to ask them about that too." He pointed his chin at the girls before turning his attention back to his driving.

After a few moments of thinking, D pushed Pena's head away from his neck, the wound not even getting a chance to bleed before it healed. "Hey! I'm still hungry." Pena had a frown on her face as the nice feeling she normally got from drinking D's blood was little more than a pleasing warmth. D ignored her and looked between the rest he took in Jane's angry expression, Rachel's disapproving expression, and the blank one from the pale girl he sighed before asking Jane what happened.

She gave him a run down of what happened after his collapse. How Larian had stopped her from running to his aide, something she emphasized. How the arch mage had then given her instructions to go to Nimil as well as to then head into the waste. With a shimmer of golden light, she added suddenly. "We have to keep her safe and you have to get stronger. There is a hunter's guild in Nimil." Jane had gestured towards the pale girl.

After that, she continued explaining how they had met Mil, escaped the strange events at the castle, and what she knew of the Royal Ranger. Hearing that the Royal Ranger was there D spotted the human shaped lump beneath a tarp at the back. "He still hasn't woken up," Jane added.

Pulling the wagon into a copse of trees Mil hopped off the settee and motioned for the girls to help him tend to the horses. All three were getting pretty good at caring for them and Mil was even teaching them how to drive the horses. It had allowed the man to sleep some without needing to stop each time, still, the horses had to eventually rest themselves. Once that was taken care of Mil entrusted D with their safety before crawling into the back of his wagon and passing out.

Rachel watched D take up a seat on the wagon's settee with such a pensive look it managed to further dispel her concerns over his monstrous nature. Moving over to sit next to him she gave him a small smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure Larian is safe." She tried to comfort him, believing he was worried about the missing arch mage.

With a long sigh D asked. "Do you think he has my stuff? All my money was in my backpack." Rachel gave him a disapproving look while Jane and Pena shared a small giggle more used to D's true nature.